What’s the secret to winning student fashion design competitions?

What makes a winning project? This is a question on the minds of many faculty members of design programs across the US as they welcome a new batch of junior students into their fall semester. Competitions and scholarship contests are a big deal within the culture of fashion degrees. Some are international like the Arts of Fashion out of Paris or UK-based Artsthread which just partnered with Gucci for its Global Design Graduate Show 2020. According to Artsthread co-founder, Alex Brownless, this year it counted nearly 4500 participants from over 400 universities and design schools, and while 36% of its entries are from the UK, US graduates make up its second largest group. Brownless tells FashionUnited that among the judges are creatives heads from Adidas, Levi's, Vogue, Heron Preston, Yeezy, Browns, Marimekko, Everlane, to name a few.